Dick Briefer

(9 January 1915 - December 1980, USA)

Crime Detective Comics

Richard "Dick" Briefer went to New York's Art Students League and entered the comic book business in 1936 as a member of the Jerry Iger studio. Dick Briefer's earliest work appeared in 1936 in Helne's 'Wow', one of the first comic books to carry original material. Over the next years at the Iger studio, Briefer produced material and titles like 'Hunchback of the Notre Dame' and Flint Baker' from 1938 to 1941 for Fiction House, 'Rex Dexter of Mars' from 1939 to 1941 for Fox and 'Human Top' in 1940 for Marvel. In addition, Briefer drew 'Pinky Rankin', the Nazi fighter, for the American Communist Party's paper The Daily Worker. Under the pseudonym Dick Hamilton, he also created the superhero team the 'Target and the Targeteers' for Novelty Press in 1940.

The Hunchback of the Notre Dame (1939)

In 1940 however, Briefer approached the Prize group with the idea to adapt Mary Shelley's 1818 novel 'Frankenstein' to comics. After six years running, the 'Frankenstein' series ended in February 1949, and Briefer returned to serious drawing. In March 1952 the Prize group recalled him to revive 'Frankenstein', but the revival ended in November 1954. Briefer left the comic industry shortly thereafter to concentrate on advertising artwork. He died in December 1980.